Mixed Reaction On Missle Defense

Since Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced his plan to scale down the nation's defense arsenal earlier this week, reactions to the decision have been mixed. There are have been complaints on the left such as in today's NYTimes Editorial that the cost cutting measures did not go far enough. On the right accusations are flying that Obama is endangering the United States by putting us at risk for future attacks, particularly in light of North Korea's recent missle launch.

While the DoD changes their strategy to direct military spending toward defending the US from our present known enemies, rather than from old threats from the Cold War era and the imagined enemies of the future, I'm left wondering whether the White House really had a choice in the matter considering the current state of the economy. While critics have cited the potential devestation the U.S. could face if we lose our superpower status and face attacks from Russia or even China, the risks of out of control healthcare spending, waves of aging entitlement program recipients, and the cost of losing out in the global economy to better educated nations are known. While the U.S. has become accustomed to waving a big stick around at the rest of the world for the past 70 years, perhaps we finally have no choice but to put the stick away and start sharpening our pencils at home.